Posts Tagged ‘pratt’

Newark, New Jersey is among one of the most significant industrious cities along the North East, due to its location, trade and transport capabilities. It is these capabilities which hinder Newark from progressing forward. Industrial expansion and overdevelopment have turned Newark into an impermeable landscape. The in-proportional ratio of hardscape to softscape has effectively limited the growth of the city and has in turn affected the city’s vitality and its ability to recover from self inflicted issues. Among the issues plaguing Newark are groundwater runoff and the high risk of transmission of the Passaic River.

Due to population growth the demand for water has intensified. Newark’s drinkable water supply, like many other major cities, is supplied from reservoirs at significant distances usually in remote locations. Sometimes in an effort to alleviate the growing populations demand for water in major urban centers, reservoirs have had to be created artificially. It is during this process that reservoirs have induced the destruction of other communities in order to accumulate the necessary space. Destroying indigenous communities should not have to be the answer to such a problem. Thus, we are introducing a repository system with the ability to coexist with the city it serves. The repository instead of being displaced from the zone of service, would in turn occupy the undesirable sites within the city domain. The site would include but is not limited to the underground sewer system but also produce a network that would encompass different levels of the city. More specifically, the underground system, the street system, and the sky system would be manipulated to serve as the program. The repository system would encompass the capability to collect water autonomously and redistribute it for a multitude of uses, whether that is providing drinking water or hydroelectric power to the city. Harvesting both the forces of water and gravity the repository system has the ability to generate electricity and reduce the city’s dependence on the grid.